Abalone

Abalone

September 20, 2007

Abalone Rumsen aulón Aristotle auriform Costanoans cultivated, Brueghel painted, awabi Osahi dove for on September 12, 425 A.D. to please Emperor Ingyó but was pulled up dead with one clutched in his hand. Iridescent pearl, nebular swirl, meat all muscle tastes like rubber. Its gonads a delicacy. Now universities are funded to study its armor. All earthly roads lead to war. But remember haliotis are hemophiliacs–once cut they bleed to death. Watch your heart.

Jeffrey YangJeffrey Yang is the author of the poetry books An Aquarium and the forthcoming Vanishing-Line. He is the translator of Su Shi's East Slope and a collection of classical Chinese poems called Rhythm 226. Yang is also the co-editor (with Natasha Wimmer) of Two Lines: Some Kind of Beautiful Signal, and the editor of Birds, Beasts, and Seas: Nature Poems from New Directions. He is currently working on a translation of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo's June Fourth Elegies.
Photograph by Nina Subin.